Life, 1903-06-25 · page 9 of 23
Life — June 25, 1903 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 591 **Main Cartoon:** "It Is a Wise Ass That Knows Its Own Driver" A donkey pulls a cart overloaded with multiple figures representing different types or classes of people. The satire suggests that various social groups are being driven in the same direction without clarity about who actually controls the outcome—a commentary on political manipulation or social conformity where people don't recognize their leaders' identities or intentions. **Bottom Panel:** "Sketches of Conversation Heard on the Avenue" Five vignettes of street conversations featuring stock character types (businessmen, fashionable women, couples). The captions mock common social platitudes: "dropped ten points," "trimmed with love-liest embroidered cushion," "insists I am the greatest Caesar," etc. This satirizes empty urban small talk and pretentious social discourse.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IT 18 A WISE ASS THAT KNOWS ITs OWN DRIVER. SNATCHES OF CONVERSATION HEARD CN THE AVENUE, +1 Just sald to her, * Brid~ “Mine catches me get, Iwill be mistress in my — right across the small owa house.’ of my back."* * Dropped ten points, aud. “Trimmed with the love- “Insists Lam the greatest he got cold feet. Hest embroidered chitfon.”* Cassar since Booth.” comicbooks.com